This Jackass for President?!

[aa7]

Well you see it is like this. He didn't think there would be a need for a fire department. Here is a link to his official Office of the Governor "Pray for Rain" Proclamation:

http://governor.state.tx.us/news/proclamation/16038/

I mean seriously... I don't have the words... WTF!

Wow... really.

Shocking.

[Kyle Aaron]

But isn't it stupid to say you're against big government, and then cut your local programs so that you are dependent on the big gov't you say you hate?

No, "stupid" is the wrong word. You're looking for "hypocritical."

Or perhaps "cowardly lying shit."

[OCG]

Perhaps just "politician"?

[mstrofbass]

No, "stupid" is the wrong word. You're looking for "hypocritical."

Or perhaps "cowardly lying shit."

As I already explained, no.

[Patrick]

I don't find that scenario all that hypocritical or stupid. I actually think it's a little shrewd. Think about it:

Most Tea Party folks have it as a stated aim to keep potential tax dollars in the hands of taxpayers and out of government coffers. Perry can't influence federal or local tax policy, only state. If Texans already paid for emergency management in FEMA, why not hold the Fed responsible for delivering the service it has already been paid for? If FEMA succeeds, you've saved your constituents money and if they don't you get to point out how federal tax money is wasted. The real downside is when people die or lose their homes.

This is not quite what I would look for in a politician, in the spirit of my comment above, but it's something I can very easily understand. What I don't get is waving a six shooter and largely vacuous statements on policy during debates and press junkets.

[tertius]

I don't find that scenario all that hypocritical or stupid. I actually think it's a little shrewd. Think about it:

Most Tea Party folks have it as a stated aim to keep potential tax dollars in the hands of taxpayers and out of government coffers. Perry can't influence federal or local tax policy, only state. If Texans already paid for emergency management in FEMA, why not hold the Fed responsible for delivering the service it has already been paid for? If FEMA succeeds, you've saved your constituents money and if they don't you get to point out how federal tax money is wasted. The real downside is when people die or lose their homes.

This is not quite what I would look for in a politician, in the spirit of my comment above, but it's something I can very easily understand. What I don't get is waving a six shooter and largely vacuous statements on policy during debates and press junkets.

Except that it's philosophically inconsistent. If you want to dismantle big government, you don't remove your local services and replace them with federal services.

[Patrick]

Except that it's philosophically inconsistent. If you want to dismantle big government, you don't remove your local services and replace them with federal services.

I agree, but that doesn't seem to be a deal breaker these days. :-/

EDIT - This is why I decidedly do understand Ron Paul.

[tertius]

You're assuming he intentionally made them dependent on the federal government.

Cutting funding to a firefighting program in a state that will inevitably have wild fires, and quite probably massive ones, sooner or later? I mean, it's the West. Hundreds of thousands of acres of land consumed by wildfires is a fairly regular occurrence. This is not unpredictable.

[Kyle Aaron]

If Texans already paid for emergency management in FEMA, why not hold the Fed responsible for delivering the service it has already been paid for?

As I understand it, FEMA is the federal emergency management agency. The idea is that it handles emergencies which are across several states and/or beyond the resources of the individual state to deal with.

I mean, I don't call in the fire department if I'm smoking while reading the newspaper and set it on fire. I drop it, stamp it out, and swear to give up dangerous things like reading the paper. But if half my house goes up, I call them.

I guess self-reliance is only for those lazy poor people. The rest of us need the big guys to bail us out when we fuck up.

[Patrick]

As I understand it, FEMA is the federal emergency management agency. The idea is that it handles emergencies which are across several states and/or beyond the resources of the individual state to deal with.

If you gut your own infrastructure, you can sorta make that the case.

I'm not defending the policy, in fact I think it's a horrible idea, but I just wanted to point out that it's equally feasible to explain it as the product of intellect as well the a deficiency of it.